Pest Control – Raccoons

Pest control ain’t just for little critters like roaches and ants. Pest control is for any pest, including the coons that keep stealing my food, and I’m not too sure my old bones can handle it. I usually sit up in my cat tree, overseeing the household affairs and making sure all is well during the night. I’m an old cat, but I still make sure my house stays nice and safe through the dark hours. In all my years, I’ve done my job well and handled a lot of the pest control around here. I keep the mouse population under control, I’ve scared off more than one rat in my time, and I keep the property pretty much free of voles and gophers. But, when pest control includes getting rid of raccoons, I have to draw the line.

The people I live with keep my dry food in a big bin, close by, so they can keep my bowl filled all the time. It’s a nice, satisfying deal. They give me a warm place to sleep and lots of food, and I handle the pest control. But, one night, a little black paw came right through my cat door, followed by a black snuffling snout and black-rimmed eyes. My food bin and cat tree sit right by the door, and I guess that raccoon decided to come right on in and steal it. I’ve run up against a coon only once in my life, and it wasn’t pretty. I still have the scars to prove it. So, I was a little more than cautious when that critter came right through my very own cat door, bold as you please. I slunk out of sight and watched the whole thing. I’m great at rodent pest control and insect pest control, but raccoon pest control is best left to someone who knows what they’re doing, and won’t end up with bites, scratches or worse.

That raccoon came in and walked around my space, snuffling around the food mostly, but also taking a look up in my cat tree. Good thing it was hungrier than anything else, so it pretty much just ignored me. With those paws, it easily dragged the bin over to the cat door, and hopped back outside. Sticking its head back through the plastic door, it easily popped that top right off the bin and dug in. Now, I’ve been trying to do that for years, but I’ve never been able to get that tight lid off. That raccoon made it look so easy, and I growled in jealousy as I watched.

Soon, it was joined by a second raccoon, and I wished raccoon pest control would show up right then and get rid of the raccoons. Unfortunately, it was late at night and I was the only observer, so I was forced to just watch as the two of them devoured my food right in front of me. They were too good to stick their snout right down into the bin. No, they were too hoity-toity to do that. They dipped their paws in and pulled out just enough to fill their mouths daintily.

To my delight, someone else in the house woke up. I don’t know if they’d heard the noise or if it was just luck, but humans bumping around and turning on lights scared those two coons off. I have no idea what they thought when they saw the bin in front of the door, lid off. Hopefully, they’ll figure it out and get raccoon pest control out here soon. I just want to go back to chasing mice and rats, sleeping in my cat tree and eating my food. This old cat can’t handle much more than that, I’m afraid.